Lookout Mountain

Since I had a haircut appointment yesterday Carl and Carson came along to drop me off so we didn't have to make two trips. Carson fell asleep in grand fashion on the way there so Carl went to work and washed the car while they waited. After they picked me up we decided to head to Golden for lunch at Woody's Pizza and Carl wanted to take us up to Lookout Mountain. He has been up there with some friends on a bike ride and really liked it. Lookout Mountain is where the Buffalo Bill is buried so you can see his grave/monument and they have a museum and gift shop up with it. Basically it was just an excuse to get out for a drive and see some more scenery. It was pretty cold and snowy up there! It wasn't too high, but we could literally see out to our house. We live right by Buckley AFB and they have huge satellites that look like golf balls. You could see them from where we were so it was cool to have a reference out in the distance. We absolutely love spending time up in the mountains and plan on doing tons of exploring this summer. Carl already bought his new off-road tires and wheels for the Jeep, a power programmer and some other stuff that I couldn't tell you about. He is pumped to take Carson camping for the first time too!

And like always, Mr. Monkey came along for the trip. He isn't a necessity, but it is a good piece of mind to always have a grip on Carson, especially up with cliffs etc. Carson just ran around, jumped in the snow, climbed up and down the stairs and did what he always does.

There isn't much to see up at the actual monument so we headed down to the gift shop. It had some seriously funny and cheesy stuff. Carl and Carson found Mommy a present.... 

A mood necklace with my name spelled right!!! You're jealous, right? :)

We walked down to the museum figuring it was worth checking out. It wasn't much to see and they wanted $5 per person. We turned right around and left, but then Carson was screaming "museum, museum!". He must have thought we were going to play since we call the Children's Museum "the museum". He was not a happy camper for awhile.

 Once we got on the road he was fine again though and took another nap.

And look! I made it into a picture! Haha......That's the big Coors factory down there.

Today was a big day...

Carson went to daycare for the first time!

Granted, it was only for about 3 hours, but still. I have checked into many different daycare options in the last few months and keep chickening out on pulling the trigger. I just can't stomach committing that much money to something that I don't know how it will work out and have to follow their schedules. Plus, they are SO expensive for something that we don't need right now. That being said, it has been getting pretty difficult here with Carson wanting 100% of my attention when I have some work stuff going on. I know that's why most people don't believe you can work at home without child care. I make it work for sure, it's just not the most fun option for either of us. He has been getting really antsy and starting to kind of act out so I want to get him around other kids and out of his normal everyday setting.

Well, we are setting up a new study at work so I knew I had a big teleconference this morning. I have heard a lot of good things about a drop-in daycare close by so we checked it out yesterday. Today was the perfect opportunity to use something like that. Their prices were really reasonable since they charge by 15 minute increments. You literally only pay for what you use and can set your own hours obviously. I got a really good feeling in the center and about all the ladies there. They have a preschool for 2-5 years from 9-noon so it's really structured with tons of stuff to play with. There is a toddler room for the little ones if there are lots of big kids in the main room too.

I dropped him off this morning around 8:45 and told them I'd call when I was done with my telecon. That was about 10:30 and she said he was doing great, asked for Mommy once and was in the highchair eating his snack then. I told her I'd be there by 11:30 and got a bunch of work done here. When I got there he didn't even act like it was a big deal to see me (bittersweet, right?). They said he couldn't have done any better, he played and had a great time. I am so happy. When we tried the gym daycare I think he was just too young to be introduced to it and also was a time when he was having separation anxiety to make matters worse. If this ends up being good we will try to use it one or two mornings a week for both of us to get a break. I love just knowing that I have an option to use something. There have been so many times I've felt pretty stuck because it seems like you have to do all or nothing with child care. This could be a great option for our situation!

He was so bored this week he started pulling out all the cookie sheets and stuff from below the ovens. That drawer lock is broken so I just let him at it. 

He lined them all up, tried walking on them and then slipped on his butt. Action shot!!!

He always watches himself in the appliances like they're mirrors.

And he is still loving his tractor book we got at Barnes and Noble. (Check out that cowlick!)

Snow Day

We were told that we'd wake up to at least 1-3 inches of snow this morning. Wrong. It didn't even start snowing here until about 6am and didn't start sticking until the afternoon. It's still going strong though. 

Anyways, I wanted to get us out of the house early just in case. First we stopped at Caribou Coffee because I noticed they have a huge toy box and a kid's corner there. Plus they have an awesome Cinnamon tea latte. Yuummmmmm. 

We were killing time so we could go over to Baby Gap when they opened. For an FYI, Gap is having their big friends and family coupon from March 18-21 and it is good for 30% off EVERYTHING in any of their stores and outlets. We got Carson some adorable stuff and I saved over $25 on top of the sale prices that I got already. I tend to buy stuff as he needs it instead of stocking up, except for the occasional great deal. 

(At Target I bought one of each color of my favorite play pants for him in 3T for next year because they were on clearance for $3 each! And I found a pair of Converse in the next size up for $9 at BRU last week.) 

Here's the coupon if anyone wants to check it out.

https://www.gapgiveandget.com/Facebook/Landing.aspx?r=e0d5a103-98ff-4f15-b7d8-591c7748e07f

He was sitting on a dining room chair watching the snow and playing with my phone this afternoon so I snapped a few smileys. The lighting was horrible, but I just love his cheese.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Hello Spring!!!

Aaaahhhhhhhhh, spring. Last night was the first time this year that we could venture over to our park. The time change along with the warmer weather have totally transformed the nights! It was really cozy outside and Carson was getting antsy. And I just seem to take pictures most places we go now!

Here's that blink again!

I absolutely love the look of sunflare in photos. I haven't gotten the hang of how to actually pull them off yet, but times like these are perfect times to practice.

We have been taking Carson to the playground at the mall at least once a week after work for a while now. There is a small slide there and he goes down it backwards on his butt. He continued the trend at this one too. He was folded in half.

He loves his grandma.

And then there is this. I really wish these were somehow doctored up, but I promise I'm not that good. Carl has tossed Carson around since the first possible second he could. It keeps getting bigger despite Carson also getting bigger. I didn't even realize it was so high until I looked at these after. Wow.

We had to drag him away, but he was getting really cold once the sun went down. His little cheeks get so red just like mine do.

Then just as a tip for the parents out there...we went to Barnes and Noble this morning to play. It is such a fun place to take kids, but it isn't a common place to think of for an outing. Carson hated the library when I tried that, but B&N has toys and ours has a big Thomas train table and train set. He played there forever. And he immediately found the "tractor" section. They've been building houses all around us for a few months now so "trator dirt" and "big truts" are his current obsession. We have to check for the tractors and trucks multiple times a day. The two homes right behind us are just about finished and he's going to be devastated when all the equipment goes away. Luckily they are everywhere else out here so we'll just have to take more field trips to check them out. A place like B&N is great because it's free, but we never actually come home empty handed. Today we got a great tractor book and a horse book. Horses are his favorite animal of the moment for some reason.
I took these pictures on my phone so Daddy can keep tabs on the fun. He gets sad that he misses out. :(

Sunday Funday

So.......it's 11pm on a Monday and here I sit. Awake and on the computer. It's not my fault though, it's Carson's. He has officially been banned from any type of actual grocery shopping taking place in our household. He can come if we are running in, but not the whole shebang. But because of this I have no choice but to go after he goes to bed on a weeknight. I flat out refuse to fight those stores on the weekends so it's usually Monday nights. The nice part is the store is beyond empty so I can put on my headphones and get it all banged out. However, somehow I always end up drinking too much caffeine and now, once again, it's 11pm and I'm wide awake. 

I don't really have a point to this post. I'll just share a few snapshots from the weekend. 

On Sunday morning we met up for breakfast with our friends at Gunther Toody's. None of us considered the time change when making the plans so we were all pretty tired. Go us! After we left we headed over to Carl's uncle's new apartment. On the way there Carson was fighting sleep SO hard. It was only like 10am so we wanted to keep him awake until we got home for a real nap. He kept dozing off, but wouldn't let himself go all the way. We were trying so hard not to laugh while watching his little head bounce all around. He wouldn't just lay back and this went on forever. Of course I taunted him with the phone so I could tape it. :)

That afternoon we hung out at home and watched some movies. It finally rained too! We have had such blah days lately that I have been wishing for something to happen. Carson just chilled on the couch for most of the time and shared some snacks with his daddy.

Daddy cooties!!! (We're lip-kissers in this house....) Carson doesn't seem too thrilled about it here, but he will plant one on you in a heart beat.

And he must be getting tired of seeing the camera all the time now. Lately whenever I try to take his picture and ask him to smile he'll close his eyes really tight. I have so many shots with this expression. This one from Sunday was a technical mess, but I liked his face too much.

I'm not sure how many people noticed, but the zoo contacted me in my last post. She asked if she could have permission to use my photos on their website or marketing materials. Of course I said yes. I was pretty flattered.

On Thursday two of them ended up on their blog!

http://cheyennemountainzooblog.blogspot.com/2010/03/what-do-giraffes-eat-not-just-crackers.html

Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

We got up Saturday morning and decided we were going to go out for the day. We threw around ideas and checked out the zoo down in Colorado Springs. We showed Carson all the animals on the website and he went nuts. That sealed the deal for what to do. 

We had heard mixed reviews about this zoo, but honestly, we absolutely loved it. It wasn't like the Denver Zoo, it was smaller, but it totally had it's own appeal and charm. It's built into the side of the mountain and you can't beat the view. It seemed like you were a lot closer to most of the animals than other zoos too. 

We were there for four hours and had so much fun. Carson walked around with Carl the entire time and it was a whole new experience for him. The last time we were at a zoo he wasn't really old enough to realize where we were or what he was seeing. He is still talking about "big hippo", "ride the giraffe" and "baby monkey". We will for sure be going back when the weather is warmer. 

The big exhibit at Cheyenne Mountain is the giraffes. We were able to feed the giraffes as kids at the Hogle Zoo, but this was all outdoors and there were a ton of them. Carson was really scared at first and then he was laughing at them.

Grandma had the most fun out of all of us. I had to tell her to stop pushing her way up in front of the little kids. Haha!

 Now that I saw how much he LOVED the fish in the bear exhibit, we will be going back to the aquarium very soon.

 He was so good the entire day. We just love seeing him experience new things.

One of the elephants was particularly fun to watch. Carson wants to watch this video over and over again now. It's really cute.

A lady cleaning the chicken house let him come in and get a close-up look.

Then he found the one that got away. I don't know what he thought he was going to do if he caught it. Probably kiss it's back like he does to the cats.

We came across the merry-go-round when trying to leave. At first he was scared and Carl said he didn't really know what to think about it. But he quickly figured out it was fun and didn't want to get off.

Unfortunately I completely filled up my camera card before we had a chance to go to the hippos or monkeys and that's where Carson had the most fun. This sealed the deal for me that I need an upgrade to at least 8gb ASAP. I did take some pics and videos on my phone that he has watched nonstop since. 

The chimp had a baby that was only a few months old and the orangutan had a baby that was just over two weeks old. It was the sweetest thing ever. Carson stood on the railing and watched them for the longest time. 

The only reason we left when we did was because they were closing up shop! Yep, we had that much fun. I can.not.wait. for summer to come so we can get out of this house more!